Thursday, June 26, 2008

Soy Milk ~ Tau Cheong Sui

With the price of soy milk at over $2.50 a litre in the shops, it is a saving to make your own. My cost per litre was only 40 cents. It is very easy. All you need is a blender, sieve and a muslin cloth.

Once you get the hang of making this, you are but a step away from making your own tau fu fah (soy bean custard/pudding) and even tofu.

soya milk
Makes 1 litre

Ingredients
120gm soya beans or soy granules*
900ml cold water


Method
1. Soak soy beans in clean water overnight.

2. Discard water. Grind the beans with half the cold water in the food blender until smooth.

3. Pour the mixture over a muslin cloth covered sieve. Strain out as much liquid as possible.


4. Put the soy pulp back into the blender with the remaining cold water and grind again. Repeat step 3 .

5. Sieve the soy milk (without the pulp) through the muslin to remove any remaining grit.

6. Microwave the milk for 7-8 minutes or until nearly boiling. This step will shorten the heating time on the stove which helps prevent a burnt pot bottom.

7. Pour soy milk into a big pot. Bring to the boil 3 times. Remove any foam.

8. The soy milk is now ready for drinking. Add sweetener of choice. Cool and store in the fridge.

Homemade soy milk
Note
1. The boiling is to kill off any enzymes.

2. If using soy granules*, soak for 1 hour only.

3. I use a product called soya granules obtainable from Bin Inn which is just normal soy beans that have been broken up. It makes beautiful soy milk. With these granules I find that I only need to soak it for about an hour before grinding.

I would if I could use whole soy beans but the beans sold around here are quite 'dated' which give the soy milk a brownish tinge. Not a good look.

soy granules
Tip
1. For vanilla flavoured milk, add ½ a vanilla bean when boiling the milk.
2. For pandan flavour, add pandan leaves when boiling the milk.
3. The leftover pulp called okara still has heaps of nutritional value. See here for okara recipes.

20 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi there!

Just bought a bag of soya bean. Will soak it today so I can make it tomorrow!

I have one of those soya bean machines but, I find it too much work to clean it afterwards!

I can't wait to add pandan leaves into mine for the extra flavour!

Thanks!

Sinner said...

Hi Tricia,

Must make a note to myself not to buy a soy bean machine. Ha ha

There was a period there when I wasn't too keen on making this soy milk as it was so tedious to scrub the burnt pot.

However, ever since I hit on the idea to heat it in the microwave first....no more burnt pot.

Since then I have been making this more frequently.

Enjoy.

Anonymous said...

Hey Sinner,

How do you make Tau Fu Far??

Sinner said...

Tricia, I will try and video the process the next time I make tau fu far.

Sri said...

Just came from FoodGawker with your shrimp dish and then, I saw this! Thanks for sharing! I thot soy bean drink could only be made with the machine!!

Definately will give this a shot.

perfectginger said...

Lovely recipe, thanks! Just made my first soy milk following your directions :). I just had a little problem as I don´t have cheesecloth so I had some trouble by that and in the end I only got half liter of milk. Where do you buy the muslin or cheesecloth?. Thanks again for your recipes!They´re great. Can´t wait to try the Ta Fu Far :).

Sinner said...

perfectginger,
If you are in NZ, I got mine from Geoff Emporium. Try the fabric shops. Before I managed to buy my muslin cloth, I tried all sorts of materials even a new pair of stockings. But I have come to the conclusion that the muslin cloth is the best.

When you do try the tau fu far, would love to hear your feedback.

Sinner said...

sri,
Ooops, just saw your comment.

Hope you found the soy milk easy to make.

perfectginger said...

Nope, I´m not in NZ but let´s see if I get it around here (Spain :), pretty far ain´t it??? )Anyways, as soon as I make the ta fu far I will let you know!
Thanx!

Anonymous said...

Would love to make fresh soya milk!! I still think those at the shops are not as good as freshly made one!

Maria abdul said...

Hi there..I live in Eltham,Taranaki...its hard to get the soybean...Would u mind if i sending u the money plus the handling cost and send me some soya granules please.....
THANKS

Sinner said...

Ridzuan,

If you have a Bin Inn at Taranaki or nearby, you might be able to get some from there. Have a look. I don't mind getting them for you but you might have to think twice as postage wouldn't be cheap.

I did notice when I looked several weeks back, the price have gone up. I am now almost afraid to look at prices of groceries as it seems to go up each week.

Anonymous said...

Sinner, In #7, you said "bring to the boil 3 times". Do I have to let the soy milk get to room temperature/cool off after boiling the first time then again after the second time?

Thanks for your help and your recipes. I love your blog.


Mary Ann

Sinner said...

Hi Mary Ann,

When your soy milk boil, it will 'foam' to the top. Turn down the heat or just lift the pot off the fire to let the foam settle down (the foam settles down within seconds). Once the foam subside, turn the heat back up or put the pot back on the stove to boil again. Do this 3 times. No need to let the milk cool off.

Thanks for dropping by.

jschia said...

Much easier than how I used to make it and less scrubbing! Great! Only thing is, I seem to still pick up a slight "bean-y" flavor... Do you know what I am referring to? Am I doing something wrong or am I too sensitive to it?

Sinner said...

Hi Jaclyn,

That was also my pet hate too - pot scrubbing. lol
I get what you mean by 'bean-y'. I have been quite lucky so far with the soy beans I have been using. Googling it, some say it is the skin. The latest lot of soy beans my grocery shop is stocking is skinless and split. How lucky am I ! It is so fresh and with it being skinless I am not paying for the 'skin'. Makes the soy much thicker too so can use less beans.
When you blend the soy beans, make sure you use fresh water (not the ones you have been soaking it with). That might help a bit.
Shop around if you have a choice and buy from different shops. You might strike it lucky and get soy beans that does not come with a 'bean-y' taste.

Cooking the sugar with some ginger or pandan or even vanilla beans might help mask the 'bean-y' taste.

jschia said...

Ok, I wrote my previous comment right after I got done with boiling the soy milk and drank it hot. When it has been cooled, the bean-y taste disappeared. I did add a few pandan leaves when I was boiling it, it was good! My mom-in-law's recipe had said to bring the soy milk to boil for about 10 minutes, turning the fire down and bringing it to a boil again to get rid of the bean-y taste. It worked when I tried it, but it also gave a burnt pot.

Hmm, do those skinless, split beans also go by mung bean? They look like it, but I didn't think they were soy beans. That would make it even easier! It would almost be like soy milk on demand(comparatively speaking)!

Thanks again!!!

Sinner said...

Hi Jaclyn,

The skinless split beans do indeed look like mung beans but they are definitely not mung beans.

When I saw the sign on top of the beans, I quizzed the shopboys and they told me it was definitely for making soy milk. It is hard talking to them - like a chicken and duck having a conversation. I don't understand their dialect and they speak little English. It was the same with the soy granules. I have never seen soy beans sold like these before.

Anyway, I bought some of those split soy beans, still thinking those shopboys were mistaken, made tau fu fah with it. Hey..what do you know, it is soy except the milk was thicker because it was skinless.

The soy granules were like soy milk on demand (only needed less than 1 hour to soak) but they have nearly tripled their price. So was quite glad to find a new source of beans. The split soy needs more soaking time but definitely a lot less than the whole beans.

rachel yee said...

May I know where I can buy the muslim cloth in sg?

Unknown said...

Hi sinner,
your recipe for soya milk is 120g dried soya bean and 900 ml cold water. Is my conversion right? 1 1/2 cup dried bean and 3.8 cups cold water? But in your video, the finalize soya milk made looks more than the amount i had converted. I need to know which is correct inorder for me to make tofu fa? Pls kindly advice.

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